Shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia:
The Soledar Salt Mines (also called Artyomsol Salt Mines after the State Enterprise Association Artyomsol that operates the mines) are located in the city/suburb of Soledar in the Bakhmut municipality in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The scale of the mines is vast. The mines have 125 miles of tunnel, are at a depth of 288m, and many of the chambers are 30 meters in height, The largest resembles a hangar of about 100 meters long and 40 meters width and 40 m height, and has accommodated soccer matches and the inflation of a hot air balloon.
On the 5th of January, 2023, the Wagner Group and Russian Armed Forces took parts of Soledar's east, forcing the Armed Forces of Ukraine to step back and take up defenses further west and in the central parts of Soledar. The salt mine has since become a critical point for Ukrainian defense of Soledar and Bakhmut, utilizing the deep tunnels of the salt mine to maintain a defensive line in Soledar, as well as to keep stockpiles of supplies and launch attacks on Russian positions from their rear.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we've collected.
January 9th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
January 10th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
January 11th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
January 13th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
January 14th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
Links and Stuff
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can, thank you.
Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. I recommend their map more than the channel at this point, as an increasing subscriber count has greatly diminished their quality.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)
Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources. Beware of chuddery.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are fairly brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. The Duran, of which he co-hosts, is where the chuddery really begins to spill out.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ Gleb Bazov, banned from Twitter, referenced pretty heavily in what remains of pro-Russian Twitter.
https://t.me/asbmil ~ Now rebranded as Battlefield Insights, they do infrequent posts on the conflict.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/riafan_everywhere ~ Think it's a government news org or Federal News Agency? Russian language.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Front news coverage. Russian langauge.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of the really big pro-Russian (except when they're being pessismistic, which is often) telegram channels focussing on the war. Russian language.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
Any Western media outlet that is even vaguely liberal (and quite a few conservative ones too).
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Last week's discussion post.
Well, he also helped a bunch of crypto miners evade regulations by pretending to be another company, according to the article
I just realized, in nearly a year of war, not once have I seen a western media outlet pose the question "what do the people of Eastern Ukraine / DPR / LPR want for themselves? Did they even want to be a part of Ukraine before all this?" For good or bad, I think Americans tend to be broadly sympathetic to secessionist movements (Europeans less so). I don't actually know for sure, I would speculate that most folks in the DPR/LPR wanted their rights respected at the very least if not actual secession. But that wasn't happening, Kiev was just shelling the fuck out of them instead.
The argument I would make is, the people of the DPR/LPR were having their basic rights being violated by their own government in Ukraine for years before this war. When you are in that situation, secession is clearly justified, I think that's a standard most people would agree with regardless of ideology. Maybe the method is questionable, but it's clear to me the people of DPR/LPR are now better protected and probably (but tell me if I'm wrong) now have the government they prefer. I guess those referendums prove my point but I'm more curious about attitudes and opinions before the war.
Of course, this is where western libs say "but those referendums in Crimea and the DPR/LPR were rigged by PUTLER!" OK fine, let's say that's true. Have you talked to people there? Do you know if they would actually prefer to be part of Ukraine or not?
It's just weird how so many people in the west tend to view secession as a sort of human right - at least if it's for the "right" reasons. But in places like Crimea or the DPR/LPR? Nope! Those places must be part of Ukraine whether the people there want it or not.
“First visit by a U.S. President to Mexico in 9 years”
:what-the-hell:
"Image of an unusual location with a short essay about what makes it cool and weird" definitely made me think this was the other mega for a minute.
I saw my chance and I took it
Now I just need to find a way to relate geological periods or groups of extinct animals to the current geopolitical situation, for ultimate confusion
Crossposting a transcription of a Black Agenda Report founding member’s Teach-In on Ukraine directly post-Maidan. Very predictive of the current state of things. Marxism is wild:
“The result will be a strengthening of ties between Russia and China, a great anxiety and rethinking among Europeans about their ties to the United States which is about to harm their economy, and an acceleration of imperialism’s death spiral.“
https://hexbear.net/post/245386
Seeing a lot of Salt from NAFO types rn.
It'll be interesting to see if Russia can actually exploit this developing breakthrough. I'd think that this would break the front wide open if they can push west of Seledar and broaden the salient, but Russia never fails to disappoint.
Former President Bolsonaro is admitted to a hospital in Florida. He claims to have severe abdominal pain.
Former president has been hospitalized at least 7 times since 2018.
Jair Bolsonaro was rushed to AdventHealth Celebration, a hospital near Orlando, Florida. Advisors report that the former president felt severe abdominal pain, similar to the one in November when he underwent tests at the Armed Forces Hospital, in Brasília.
LMAO :data-laughing: :bolso-pain:
does he have some kind of medical condition or does he just eat fucked up shit
Since he was stabbed in September 2018 during the campaign for the presidential elections, the former president has been admitted to hospitals on some occasions to undergo surgeries and tests
He is afraid of being arrested by US police and then deported to Brazil. So yeah, Lula scared bolsonaro so much, that he shat himself really hard.
Remember the last few times where they had to stick a tube into his nose and suck the shit from his intestines? Guy was literally so full of shit it needed to be vacuumed out before it ruptured his guts.
Sprinkle a little flaky salt on top of your pizza before putting it in the oven
is this a joke based on the megathread theme or is my nefarious plan to boost the number of comments here by confusing people which megathread they're in working? i've seen a few more accidental general megathread posts here than usual
Ukraine map is gone and we've all lost our guiding light. I never read the titles and only glanced at the image to know which thread was which
FT: UK weighs supplying Ukraine with Challenger tanks
They're like 65 fucking tons! They're even heavier than the Abrams tanks!
Would love to see what this would do to Ukraine's roads and bridges. Wouldn't do good things, I can immediately say.
And as people have repeatedly pointed out, the weight of the tanks increases the maintenance required geometrically, not linearly. Maintenance that needs to be done in Poland. So you have to haul these tanks out to the front like a thousand kilometers, then they get damaged, then you need to haul them all the way back.
Like the decision to keep a different train gauge from Europe, the decisions of the Soviets has proven very important in this conflict, like making sure that heavy tanks from NATO wouldn't be able to function effectively this deep into their former territory.
Would love to see what this would do to Ukraine’s roads and bridges. Wouldn’t do good things, I can immediately say.
:porky-happy: good for investors
Estonia wants to seize "Russian assets" including real estate and bank accounts. Whether or not this even means the homes people own and live in and like bank accounts where the paychecks go to, is up for speculation. Suddenly some longtime friends now deserve the wall because they're 100% in favour of the idea "because they're
PalestiniansRussians". This just popped out from them because I mentioned my intent to leave 🇪🇪 🔥 within the next 2 years. Also since the :estonia-burning: isn't added,🇪🇪 :stalin-gun-1::stalin-gun-2:
It's always fun to see countries that exist entirely at the pleasure of the US military go full Scrappy Doo mode.
